American Dairymen - Reproductionhttp://americandairymen.com/tags/reproduction
enBreeding Decisions: IVF or ET? http://americandairymen.com/articles/breeding-decisions-ivf-or-et
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:24px;"><span style="color:#006400;"><strong> Breeding Decisions: IVF or ET?</strong></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><em> By Jaclyn Krymowski for American Dairymen</em></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> What constitutes “elite cows” differs from herd to herd. For some it comes down to genomic merit, for some its production traits and profitability, yet others it’s all about type. Regardless of what category your elite animals fall into, they share the same common ground. This where you’d like to maximize your breeding potential. Careful sire selection is only one of the many tools at your disposal to accomplish that. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">In-vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer (ET) technologies are both major options that can amplify the impact of each and every breeding. Deciding on which one to use and how can make the difference between lost opportunity and time or fasttracking to new replacements. For these reasons, both options continue to be increasingly common in the show and commercial worlds.</span></span><br /> </p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:18px;"><span style="color:#008000;"><strong>IVF vs. ET</strong></span></span><br />Both of these technologies have the same end goal in mind. That is, they help to increase the rate of an animal’s genetic gain and her reproductive efficiency by increasing the number of calves she can have or introducing outside embryos to the herd. Both techniques may be done using either fresh or frozen embryos and have varying degrees of success. An experienced technician, in some states this must be a licensed veterinarian, is necessary to perform either procedure.<br />Embryo transfer, which involves flushing a super-ovulated bred cow with the resulting embryos being transfer to recipients either immediately or frozen for later. This method has a higher collection rate in comparison to its counterpart, producing five to six viable embryos per successful flush. Pregnancy rates are also higher, studies report as high as 60-70% when the transfer is done fresh and around 50% when frozen. Economically, this factors into an overall lower average up-front cost.</span></span><span class="floatright"><img alt="" height="339" src="/sites/americandairymen.com/files/resize/article-inline-images/869511138-509x339.jpg" style="float:right;" width="509" /></span><br /><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">A bonus to ET is that it is accessible to most farms due to its wide practice and relative simplicity. This is because these embryos are fairly hardy and not environmentally sensitive. However, this procedure can only be done every 45-60 days. For obvious reasons, it is also best done with sexed semen which can add to the cost and take more units to procure a pregnancy.<br />Some estimates show that ET will cost at least $250 per viable pregnancy, variable to the price and amount of semen used. Sometimes this is justified by the value of the resulting calf. Some operations set an X value that the offspring of a particular animal must have to be worth the investment in additional reproductive technology.<br />In-vitro fertilization is an excellent option for heifers too young to yet be traditionally bred, spring boarding their productive life and genetic impact on the herd. In this procedure, the cow is not bred prior to flushing and the aspirated oocytes (unfertilized eggs) are fertilized in a lab. This can also be done far more frequently than ET, as much as weekly or biweekly.<br />This method can be successful with animals that aren’t able to be a prolific ET donor. However, this option can also be/ more difficult to get a viable pregnancy out of. A successful flush averages only four to five oocytes for fertilization. There is only a 50% chance of pregnancy when done fresh and 55-60% frozen. They are also much more delicate and are very temperature sensitive and require a temperature-controlled room for aspiration. This means you will have to either find a nearby collection facility you can transport your animals to or find a farm that has on-site facilities available to use.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:18px;"><span style="color:#008000;"><strong>Selecting an option</strong></span></span><br />Cows that aren’t having much luck getting live calves from transfers are worth trying in IVF. Some of the issues IVF can work around are oviduct blockages, abnormal ovulations, or issues with progesterone and corpus luteums. Heifers as young as seven or eight months old are also eligible for this procedure.<br />However, IVF is not for all animals either. It will not be successful on donors that have low antral follicular counts and poor oocyte producers.<br />If you are looking to get more embryos per flush, want the higher conception rates and the lower up-front cost obviously ET is your go-to option. If your cows are open and prolific ovulating donors, they should be good candidates. This method is primarily for your proven breeders. It doesn’t work well with virgin heifers, poor ovulators or impacted by other various reproductive issues.<br />Of course, there are many extraneous factors that will vary from farm to farm. These may include budget, number of animals to breed, availability of trained technologies and equipment and other resources. Take a look and see where in your area these practices are being implemented.</span></span></p>
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<p class="italic"><span class="label-inline">Published :&nbsp;</span><span><span>11/21/2018 - 2:20pm</span></span></p>
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bpeterson </div>
<h4 class="label-above">Tags:&nbsp;</h4><ul><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/breeding-decisions">Breeding Decisions</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/ivf">IVF</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/et">ET</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/vitro-fertilization">In-vitro Fertilization</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/embryo-transfer">Embryo Transfer</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/reproduction">Reproduction</a></li></ul>Wed, 21 Nov 2018 20:20:28 +0000bpeterson50587 at http://americandairymen.comIdentifying Reproduction Benchmarks http://americandairymen.com/articles/identifying-reproduction-benchmarks
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#006400;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><strong> Identifying Reproduction Benchmarks </strong></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><em> By Jaclyn Krymowski for American Dairymen</em></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> Among the most important assets a cow can provide to a farm is pregnancy. The value of a single pregnancy varies from farm to farm and has a host of contributing factors. It’s estimated at an average worth anywhere from $250 to over $500, depending on the markets and specific operation. Every day a cow is kept open past an established voluntary waiting period (VWP) her expense increases.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The benchmarks a herd should aim for needs to be evaluated in a team effort involving farm owners and managers, veterinarians, and everyone involved in the breeding process. A handful of key reproduction analysis measures can be narrowed down to improve pregnancy success.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:18px;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 128, 0);"><strong>Where to look</strong></span></span><br />The big analyses to watch include pregnancy rate (PR), and conception rate (CR) in both cows and heifers. Daughter pregnancy rate (DPR) is another measure of note is of ever increasing importance in many herds. To get an idea of where your farm stands on each of these measures, it is a good practice to review the national and state breed-specific herd averages and understand what factors contribute to each.<br />Pregnancy rate is determined either by the number of animals pregnant divided by the total number of animals eligible for pregnancy within a specific time frame – usually each 21-day cycle – throughout the year. Another way this is calculated is by a herd’s total CR multiplied by the heat detection rate (HDR) or service rate (SR). “Eligible” cows or heifers refers to any animal that is open past the established VWP and not marked as a “do not breed” animal. According to AgSource Dairy, the annual 2017 PR herd average out of 2509 Wisconsin Holstein herds was 18.1%. Herds in the 80th percentile were as high as 25% for mature cows. Jersey PR statistics were 21% for cows from 127 herds in the state; the 80th percentile was a 28%. Comparatively, heifer conception rates were 59.7% on average with the 80th percentile being 67%.<br />Conception rate is calculated by the number of confirmed pregnant animals by the total number of inseminations. According to the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) the most recent national average from December 2017, calculated from over 200,000 Holstein cows born in 2015, is 59.7%. The calculation for Holstein heifer CR born in 2016 is 68.7%. For Jersey cows and heifers, the CR is 54.7% and 64.3% taken out from over 300,000 and 400,000 animals respectively. For a local comparison, the AgSource Wisconsin Holsteins herds averaged around the 57.5% with the 80th percentile being 64% for first lactation groups. Heifers averaged around a 60% CR with the 80th percentile being over 66%. The state Jersey herds averaged 63% in the first lactation and the upper percentile herds being as high as 75%. Heifers averaged at 59.7% and as a high as 67%.</span></span><span class="floatleft"><img alt="" height="389" src="/sites/americandairymen.com/files/resize/article-inline-images/55960357-421x389.jpg" style="float:left;" width="421" /></span><br /><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of the factors impacting CR and PR are directly linked to the breeding process, namely, these include fertility of the cow and semen used, time of insemination, and skill of the technician. Both analyses are highly accurate to get an idea of where a herd is standing because they draw their data from confirmed pregnancies. However, they require diligent record keeping and all services need to be recorded. Likewise, these benchmarks don’t account for all fertility data. For example, only animals that are presented for A.I. are accounted for, pregnancy rates can be high, but fertility can be low because too few animals are being presented for service.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#008000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>Other considerations</strong></span></span><br />Heat detection rate, like the PR equation, is the number of animals bred divided by the number of animals eligible for breeding, typically each 21-day cycle. This measurement is perhaps the greatest impacted by management strategy. Without regular monitoring and recording, a herd with a poor HDR percentage can be difficult to pinpoint if heats are not being observed or animals are failing to cycle at all. For farms that don’t use a form of electronic monitors to track heat detection, the service rate is typically used to measure HDR. Service rate is the proportion of cows eligible for service in a set period (again usually every 21-day period) that are bred. The minimum service or heat detection rate is usually suggested to be at least 60% but well-managed farms can be well above.<br />In recent years there has been more emphasis on sires with higher DPR to genetically improve overall fertility. The DPR calculation currently used deviates slightly from the PR formula, as it is more technically accurate. The national Holstein cow averages from the CDCB was 36.2% taken from over 300,000 individual animals born in 2015. For Jerseys born in the same year, it was 38.1% out of over 50,000 individuals.<br />For herds on DHI test, the PR, CR, and HDR report can be found on the DHI-202 Herd Summary for each test period and the last 12 months. In PCDART report 126-Pregnancy Rate Summary will calculate PR according to 21-day intervals or days in milk, the CR and HDR can be found on report 801.<br />Sources: <a href="https://www.dairyherd.com/article/monitor-your-herds-pregnancy-rate">https://www.dairyherd.com/article/monitor-your-herds-pregnancy-rate</a><br /><a href="https://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/dairy/reproduction-and-genetics/metrics-reproductive-performance/index.html">https://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/dairy/reproduction-and-genetic...</a> <a href="http://dairy.missouri.edu/reproduction/dairyreproductionmanual.pdf">http://dairy.missouri.edu/reproduction/dairyreproductionmanual.pdf</a><br /><a href="http://www.nadis.org.uk/bulletins/fertility-in-dairy-herds/part-8-measuring-fertility-benchmarking-your-farm.aspx">http://www.nadis.org.uk/bulletins/fertility-in-dairy-herds/part-8-measur...</a></span></span></p>
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<p class="italic"><span class="label-inline">Published :&nbsp;</span><span><span>03/21/2018 - 11:17am</span></span></p>
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siteadmin </div>
<h4 class="label-above">Tags:&nbsp;</h4><ul><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/reproduction">Reproduction</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/reproduction-benchmarks">Reproduction Benchmarks</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/dairy-pregnancy-rate">Dairy Pregnancy Rate</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/council-dairy-cattle-breeding-0">Council On Dairy Cattle Breeding</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/cdcb">CDCB</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/cow-fertility">Cow Fertility</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/insemination">Insemination</a></li></ul>Wed, 21 Mar 2018 16:17:22 +0000siteadmin50523 at http://americandairymen.com